Next-gen wireless chargers could charge your device through a table or desk

Wireless charging has been around for a few years at this point, but it’s still a relatively new technology. Sure, you can buy a wireless charger for your Nexus 4 smartphone, but you have to place the phone directly on the charger in order for it to do anything.

Eventually you may just have to place your gadgets near a charging pad… or even on a table above one.

That lets you build a charger into a desk, table, car console, or other surface so that you can just place your phone, tablet, or laptop on top of the surface to start the charging process.

It also makes it easier to charge irregularly shaped devices like watches, since they might be difficult to lie flat on a traditional charging pad.

Wireless charging isn’t generally as efficient as plugging in a charging cable — some electricity is wasted in the process, which means it can take longer (and cost more) to charge your device. And the further away your charging pad is from the device you’re trying to power up, the more the signal will degrade.

So the key factor here is convenience: wireless charging makes it much easier to keep your batteries topped off, since you don’t have to fiddle with wires every time you want to recharge your device. And vertical wireless chargers could make things even easier.

Arrdee

Aren’t these all based on induction? So they’ll always be more than just a little bit wasteful and you probably risk things like wiping mag stripes on credits cards and such. And what about my precious collection of 8-track tapes?